MacLennan Trail and Kaw River State Park -- Topeka, KS

On this cold, blustery Saturday afternoon we decided to try out the MacLennan Park.trail on the grounds of Cedar Crest, the Kansas "governor's mansion" (the guv-nuh doesn't really live there, to my knowledge.)  So, we unloaded and unfolded our trusty Montague bikes and headed west along a limestone path up a hill in a pasture following along 6th street.  And then we got, um, misplaced.  The limestone trail we had been following for the MacClennan trail just ended abruptly at the road that took us into Kaw River State Park. There was a map board there that we tried to read to figure out exactly where we were supposed to go to continue on the MacClennan trail, but it wasn't terribly helpful.  So, we headed up the paved road, wondering if perhaps it would connect us back to our limestone MacClennan path.  And it did not.  We ended up in the forest on very narrow hiking/mountain bike trails.  And then we wound around in there pushing our bikes in circles for well over 30 minutes.  We happened upon two very helpful ladies at various points and pitifully asked them for directions which they happily gave us and we were just as happily not very successful at following once they continued on their way.  But we finally emerged from the forest and I am chalking this day up to a biathlon of both hiking AND biking.  So, we finally found the limestone MacClennan trail again and were finally able to actually ride our bikes.  And after all that hullaballo trying to find it, our opinion of it was....... meh.  Most definitely, just meh. We both decided we have done it once, we won't seek it out to ride a second time.

~~H 

We took this picture before we started our ride.  Looking at it now, we are still not sure exactly where we went.  LOL

Headed up the hill following the trail along 6th street.

And this is where things went wrong.  Maybe this is the way?  Negatory.

Down in the forest near the river, near the railroad track.  This was just at the beginning of the forest adventure, though.  The 30 minutes of hiking/bike pushing along narrow rocky trail was still ahead of us.  Woohoo! 
(No, we are not mountain bikers -- don't judge us.)

The point where we broke free once again!!!!

In front of Cedar Crest

The pond down near I-70 that the trail circles.

The path around said pond.

The one-time original driveway, we presume.  Pretty and tree-lined.

There was an exercise station at one point too, but we're not that hardcore.